Rights groups press for Habre to be tried

Human rights groups issued a statement on Wednesday urging that Senegal had a legal obligation to bring former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre to justice. The statement came on the eve of a hearing in Dakar’s three-judge Indicting Chamber, in which Habre’s lawyers will seek to prevent a suit filed by the rights groups against Habre from going to trial. One of their arguments is that Senegal has no jurisdiction over crimes committed in Chad. The groups - which filed the suit on behalf of Chadian torture victims - noted, however, that the 1984 UN Convention against Torture, which Senegal ratified in 1987, obliges states to prosecute or extradite alleged torturers who enter their territory. “The torture convention was adopted in order to deny a ‘safe haven’ to those who commit this heinous crime,” said Reed Brody, Advocacy Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the organizations which filed the suit. “Habre’s theory would turn Senegal’s ratification of this key treaty into an empty gesture with no real effect.” Habre seized power in 1982. His one-party regime was marked by widespread abuse and campaigns against ethnic groups, according to HRW. He was deposed in December 1990 by current president Idriss Deby, who had been his army chief of staff. The complaint against Habre has been filed by HRW, the Dakar-based Reseau africain de Defense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO), the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues and five other groups. These are l’Association Tchadienne pour la Promotion and Defense des Droits de l’Homme (ATPDH), the Ligue Tchadienne des Droits de l’Homme (LTDH), Senegal’s Organisation nationale des Droits de l’Homme, the London-based Interights, and the French organization Agir Ensemble pour les Droits de l’Homme.